Etui Podcast #09: Patrick Zigon

Patrick Zigon is an artist in the truest sense of the word. Hailing from the beautiful German Lake Constance region, the DJ and producer is more inspired by landscapes, the impact of nature and his whole environment than by any fast moving musical hypes. That’s probably why he’s paying extra attention to sound design and atmospheres in his club tracks and that they have something to express rather than just working on the dancefloor. Patrick has made himself a name with countless trademark releases on labels such as Highgrade, Puzzle Traxx, Tanzbar and Galaktika to name just a few and heavy remixing for the likes of Steve Lawler, Guy Gerber & Shlomi Aber’s “Sea of Sand”, Gregor Tresher, Reboot, Gui Boratto, Extrawelt on labels such as Cocoon, Traum, Great Stuff, Be As One or Trapez. As his music is characterized by a certain deepness and trippyness, he’s what many people call the electronic hypno maestro from South Germany.

You are living in a small village at Lake Constanze in south Germany. What is the special appeal of the region?

Well, Konstanz is a small village with 100 000 people at a beautiful lake. In the summer it‘s a beloved Tourist-region, where a lot people spend their holidays, so you got a nice vibe during this time. In Winter it‘s the completely opposite – it‘s cold, dark and foggy and the people are mostly in a bad and depressive condition – i like both sides, both moods are an important inspiration for me and my music.

And this is where you get your inspiration?

I think most inspiring for me are the people surrounding me and the artists i work with. But sure, the landscapes are beautiful, we got a big lake with all it‘s amazing atmospheres – this is the major-inspiration for my Dub-Techno-Love for sure ;-)

Did you ever think about moving to a bigger city with a big club scene?

Yeah, from time to time i think about it. At the moment i think about to move to Berlin to build a new studio up there, cause a good friend of mine builds a big studio-area in the heart of Berlin. A lot of amazing Producers will have their studios there, so it‘s quite interesting for me. But I will not move permanently there. I love the silence during the week in Konstanz. I can totally focus on studio and myself – i‘m sure i couldn‘t do that if i‘d live in a big city the whole time.

Beside your own productions you did a lot of remixes for example Guy Gerber & Shlomi Aber`s “Sea of Sand” and Extrawelt`s “Doch Doch”. What is the intention of a Patrick Zigon remix?

3-4 years ago i did a lot remixes, i guess 10-15 each year. I love to do my own versions of big tracks, and fortunately i had the honour to remix the works of amazing producers. My reworks are mostly deep and hypnotic, i try to rebuild the track completely and to provide my very own version. I think Guy & Shlomi‘s „Sea of Sand“ on Cocoon Recordings is a good example, as i had no possibility to use any of the original-parts. The guys had a harddrive-crash and lost all the remix-files. So i had to start from zero, which was the best thing could happen ;-) At the moment i don‘t do many remixes, as i‘m focusing on my productions and my label.

In 2012 you started your Label “Biotop” releasing not only dancefloor orientated music. What is the idea of the label and why all releases are free of charge?

Well, i started Biotop to get complete freedom concerning producing and releasing my music. Till now I don‘t work with a distribution or a promo-agency. I had the wish to release experimental music whenever i like, and it was also important for me that people decide on their own if they like the music or not. We don‘t force anybody to listen to our music, you don‘t have to pay for it, so it‘s only about the music…not chartings, hypes or whatever. It‘s an experiment to find out what‘s important for me and my artists. From Biotop you get real music from true artists. After one year this experimental period of our label is over, and we‘ll also start to release in the „real world“ on physical stuff such as vinyls, cds etc.

What is the idea behind your mix?

I always work a lot on my mixes. I‘m looking for the perfect tracks, and try a lot how they fit together in the best way. It‘s important for me to have a nice „story“ in a mix, so i mostly start with some housy and experimental stuff, and build it up to proper techy stuff. For this mix i keep it more dub-techy in the end, and sure…i also included my track „The End My Friend“ which was released on the „Etui Winter Camp“ Compilation.

What can we expect in the future? Are there any new projects or releases in the pipeline?

The last year i focused completely on the work for my label. A lot of new stuff is coming on Biotop – collaborations, singles, and also the first albums, which i produced with great musicians. We started our first monthly Radioshow on sceen.fm and from April on we‘ll have our first „Biotop Label Tour“ presenting our artists. At the moment i‘m workin on a new EP for a great label, and i have some great artists to remix on the list again. Besides all this artistic stuff we‘re organising monthly events with our Event-Label “Traumraum“. For example in february we welcome „Etui-Brain“ Insect O. in our Fav-Club „Climax Institutes“ in Stuttgart…we‘re so looking forward ;-)